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The Cleveland Cavaliers achieved a lot of things on Sunday.

They won the NBA title.
They became the first team to come back from a 3-1 series deficit.
They won the first pro sports championship for Cleveland since 1964.
They defeated the best Regular Season team in NBA history.
They fulfilled the promise of the greatest hoopster in the game today.
They did the implausible.

Yet they also created a major mess in the world of sports, and perhaps beyond. In fact, I predict it will reach the worlds of politics, business, military encounters, beauty pageants, spelling bees, and cooking shows. They have made extinct a very important species of competitor.

This competitor is one that was universally loved. It was one you could cheer for when your team had already been eliminated. They were a safe bet to whom you, too, temporarily gave your allegiance, because they couldn’t fulfill it anyway.

If you happened to have a permanent attachment to said species, you were in even better shape. This relationship provided you with a lifetime hall pass for you to vent, whine, grumble, and complain. Your excess drinking was tolerated. Your endless belly aching expected. Your embittered tweeting anticipated.

But now? Now you’re screwed.

Your excuse has been extinguished. Your rants have been rejected. Your murmurs have been shut down. For one simple reason.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have killed the Underdog.

By doing the impossible. By conquering the Mighty Warriors on their home court, twice when facing elimination. By bringing joy to Mudville, they have killed the Underdog.

No longer can Cleveland ask for pity or sympathy. No longer can Ohio claim itself rusty and old. No longer do the Browns have the best excuse in the NFL…we’re from Cleveland. No longer.

But this excuse-free zone isn’t limited to the Forest City. No, it’s going to cut a wide swath across the world.

Quit your whining Toronto Maple Leafs fans. You, too, in St. Louis. Ahem, Vancouver.

Hey Bruins fans, go get your living-with-no-Super-Bowl-wins-ever comrades from Jacksonville, Detroit, and Houston together for your last pity party. Don’t forget to invite some Cardinals fans. At least they won a title when they were in Chicago.

Chicago? Don’t get Cubs fans started. Because this is their year. This is the year that 1908 is soon to be forgotten. This is the year the Cleveland Indians, who haven’t won the Series since 1948, get to return as the holder of the longest drought in baseball. Boy have the Cavs screwed you. No one cares about your losing streak. Underdogs have been obliterated from the Ohio dictionary.

So now what to do? Lots of other teams have the same bleak past as the Cavs. But nobody wants to hear your story anymore. No, ma’am. If the Cavs can win it all, so can you. You can’t keep whining. You just need the best player in your sport to be from your backyard and, through unrestricted free agency, for him to come to your rescue. Oh yeah, he also has to bring in his own hand-picked associates. Get to hire, and fire, his own boss. Devise the game strategies, the practice regimes, the offensive plays, and the layout for the game-day program.

Then sit back and watch him control your every emotion for twenty four months as he wages through ups and downs, adversity, injuries, bickering, and doubters. Watch him get fitter, stronger, and more intense with age. Watch it all unfold until the glittery gold of the championship and playoff MVP trophies are in his arms.

Then sit back with your own smug smile and say to all the rest of us: Get with the program. If Cleveland, yes Cleveland, can win it all. Why can’t you?

Just don’t dare call yourself an Underdog.

Disclaimer 1: I’m a crazy football fan.

Okay, so this isn’t news to anyone who has known me for more than thirty seconds or stepped inside my office or followed me when I’m coaching one of my three teams I lead…a year! I love the CFL, CIS, NCAA, GFL (German Football League), and the NFL. But like most Canadian football fans I have long wished we could tailgate like our pigskin loving cohorts to the South. For a true fan, a three-hour game isn’t long enough. It needs to be primed with three hours of food, suds, and football talk. It needs to be energized by meeting new friends, high fiving strangers, and listening to the tales of the old-timers. Outdoors, in a parking lot or an empty field or wide trekked golf course, your BBQ sizzling, and your beverages flowing. That’s football.

Disclaimer 2: I’m an Argos season ticket holder.

I haven’t been for super long. A few years. But I wanted to support the team despite the fact that football in the Rogers Centre just didn’t work for me. Yes, I was somewhat motivated by the work we do with the CFL and brands such as Nissan, but if your clients can’t rely on your support, then something is really wrong. Even though I didn’t make it to many games, the others were all used by very appreciative recipients of the MH3 ticket fairy. So the money was well spent.

Until this year. I couldn’t believe my eyes as to how quickly the sale of the team to Bell and Larry Tannenbaum resulted in their moving to the marvelous BMO Field. My first and swift reaction was to renew my season tickets for 2016. My patience was about to be rewarded! Football at BMO. Naturally outdoors! Yeah baby!

Disclaimer 3: The Toronto Argonauts are my client.

I wasn’t the only person excited about the Argos sale and move. Newly minted President and CEO, Michael Copeland, deservedly holds the mantle for being most excited. He needs to. He’s in charge of a 100-year-old start-up! One of his first tasks for reinvention was to pursue the tailgating experience he knows so well as a Michigan football goer. Luckily for me, his team reached out to T1 and engaged us to help them turn the fantasy of beer in parking lots into reality.

In an unbelievably collegial wave of cooperation that would embarrass the UN, the Argos, the city, Ontario Place, Exhibition Place, MADD, AGCO, and others all worked together to make this thing come to life. They say it takes a village. They are right!

Last weekend we tested the first tailgate event at BMO, and it was magical. The fans knew what to do. They brought foosball tables, mini footballs, full-sized footballs, girlfriends, moms, kids, barbecues, picnic tables, coolers, tablecloths, and music. We brought them sunshine, inexpensive perfectly-chilled beer, marching bands, cheerleaders, and smiles.

It was amazing. I wished I had spent the whole day there.

Disclaimer 4: I’m actually a diehard Ottawa Rough Riders fan.

This is a strange thing to say after declaring that the Argos are my client. Well, it has a purpose in the mix. Ottawa has been successfully reborn. New name (can’t say I like). New stadium (can easily say I love). New team (Grey Cup finalists!)

Now it’s the Argos’ turn.

Disclaimer 5: I became an Argos fan when they traded for Condredge Holloway.

I was crushed when Holloway left the Riders, but he made me cheer for the Argos. He was a dangerous scrambler with a shot-put-like throwing method and a ‘fro that I modelled my hair after.

He was also a pioneer. The first black QB in the SEC and obviously at the University of Tennessee. He was also the school’s first black baseball player. He won a Grey Cup for Ottawa and another for Toronto, so now I had two teams to cheer for!

Disclaimer 6: One of my childhood nicknames was Leon, after Argos RB X-Ray McQuay of the famous 1971 Grey Cup fumble.

If you don’t know who McQuay is, or what the Argo Bounce means, or who Joe Krol or Joe Theismann were, then you need to learn. Because the Argos are a rich, rich, rich part of our city’s history. The infamous Argooooos call is heard at sporting events everywhere. I kid you not, I heard it at the London Olympics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oiIASx7Cto

But if history isn’t your favourite subject, then perhaps you prefer Social Studies. If so, then you should get to an Argos game this summer, and get ready to have the best experience. The tailgating zone is only going to get bigger. There will soon be a setup for people who travel by transit or foot, because the Argos want everyone to be able to tailgate. The setting by the lake is magical. The stadium comes alive with every hit and hut.

 

Disclaimer 7: The Argos did not pay me to write this blog.

Every week I do get someone suggesting I blog about their activity or event. Every couple of weeks I get accused of being paid. Or biased. Let’s set things straight. Nobody has offered enough for me to accept payment for writing a blog. Everybody knows I’m biased and I admit to being guilty as charged.

He wasn’t perfect. But the world in which he was born was even less so.

He wasn’t invincible. Though he convinced us all he was. Even when the ring bell said differently.

He wasn’t the greatest. He was the double greatest. That’s what he told us and we believed him.

Cassius Clay, Muhammad Ali, The Greatest. You would have to be under a rock to not know he passed away last Friday. Every morning since, I have awoken with a heavy heart. I am a child of the 70s, and in that era, heavyweight boxing was THE spectacle of the day. The Heavyweight Champion of the World was undisputedly acknowledged as the baddest man on the planet. There was no quibbling. As one reporter said, when Ali lost a fight the entire planet was devastated. Though he only lost five times, and three of them were in his last four unnecessary bouts.

I once dreamt of being a sports reporter. If I was, I would fight hard for the dream assignment of posthumously interviewing Ali today. If I could go 15 rounds with Muhammad, here is what I would want to know:

1. I would ask him how he brought so much love to a world that bestowed upon him so much hate.

2. I would ask him how he brought so much hate to a world that bestowed upon him so much love.

3. I would ask him how old he was when he knew he would someday be The Greatest. I would also want to know if he knew it would last forever.

4. I would ask him whether he forgave Don King. Ali got King his start in boxing as a promoter and King screwed Ali out of money owed to the fighter when his health was plummeting and his earning power eradicated.

5. I would ask him how he, a Black Muslim boxer from the South, and Howard Cosell (nee Cohen), a famed ABC TV broadcaster from Brooklyn, bonded so amazingly on television. Watch this clip to see what I mean.

6. I would ask him how it felt to be robbed of his prime for practicing his Muslim beliefs and objecting to the Vietnam War.

7. I would ask him how he feels about Presidential nominees who want to bar Muslims from America.

8. I wouldn’t ask him about terrorists using Islam as justification for their actions, as I wouldn’t want to see that much sadness in his eyes.

9. I would ask him who his heroes were.

10. I would ask him which of his famous one-liners was his favourite. I would tell him that I love: “Don’t count the days, make the days count.”

11. I would ask him why he couldn’t hang up his gloves and retire before ending his career with embarrassing losses at age 38.

12. I would ask him when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, did he wish he had never boxed.

13. I would ask him what he wished he could say to us during all those years he suffered from Parkinson’s disease.

14. I would ask him who he wants to follow in his footsteps.

15. I would ask him what it’s like in heaven.

As LeBron said, it was sad yet amazing to be at the ACC Friday night listening to twenty thousand fans chant, “Let’s Go Raptors” even as the clock wound down and we had no hope of a comeback. The team and the organization deserved the support.

What an amazing ride twenty games of playoff basketball turned out to be. So, I have twenty things to thank the Raptors for:

1. Thank you MLSE for making me buy Raptors season tickets when I received the opportunity to buy Leafs season tickets several years ago. At the time it felt like price gouging. Now it feels like a bargain.

2. Thank you for not trading Kyle Lowry.

3. Thank you for not firing Dwane Casey.

4. Thank you for creating the best park in Canada, Parc Jurassique.

5. Thank you for the best marketing slogan in sports. I love the mofo North!

6. Thank you for honouring the Canadian inventor of the game with the hottest NBA All-Star weekend ever, despite the bone-chilling cold.

7. Thank you for making Stephen A. Smith apologize to all of Canada.

8. Thank you for fielding a Canadian, Cory Joseph. Life came full-circle for me as I witnessed the magic of his father, David Joseph, who played one stunning season for the University of Guelph when I covered the team for the campus paper.

9. Thank you for making Bismack Biyombo rich. His next team will surely pay a lot more for the free agent after what he did in the playoffs.

10. Thank you Bis for what you did when Jonas went down.

11. Thank you Jonas Valanciunas for showing us what the future holds as your talents mature.

12. Thank you for making me a hero with my son who got to see the Game 7 victory of the Indiana series.

13. Thank you for making rounds I & II more dramatic than they needed to be.

14. The Canadian Water Cooler Association would like to thank you for keeping them relevant when all of our NHL teams could not.

15. Thank you for the free t-shirts. My car will never look cleaner this summer.

16. Thank you for the kick-ass playoff marketing campaign.

17. Thank you for the countless Drake sightings.

18. Thank you for filling the gap when TFC was away, the Argos were in trading, the Leafs are in rebuilding, and the Jays have been taking it on the chin, literally.

19. Thank you for the economic stimulus for the city.

20. Thank you for TWENTY GAMES of PLAYOFF BASKETBALL.

It seems I’m in the free advice business these days.

Friends starting their own companies. People faced with the opportunity of a new job. People seeking volunteers to help raise funds. Old colleagues looking for a new job. Strangers currently out of a job. Sales people looking for introductions. Clients thinking about a new job.

They all come asking for advice. Free advice.

For years I think I have given more than my fair share. Much more. Why? Because I’m a big believer in what goes around comes around. There are many a days when I need an introduction, a favour, some industry intel, or a referral. Many, many days. I don’t feel guilty about asking, because I feel like I’m good at doing my part. So I give free advice, because I get free advice.

It’s amazing the power of the old adage of it’s not what you know, it’s who you know that drives business success. I tend to edit that saying by suggesting it’s both. Having the contacts affords you the opportunity to demonstrate what you know. But without the contacts, the knowledge size is useless.

So get off your butts, and get out to network.

Oh, I’m serious. Very serious. The number-one mistake I see is people don’t network until it’s too late. They wait until they lost the sale or their job, or their investors fell through, before they network aggressively. Many times an unemployed person tells me they were too busy to network when they had a job. Many times a small business owner will claim they were fully occupied servicing their major client or retailer to look for new business. Many times an entrepreneur will believe they were being unfaithful to look for other investors while their father-in-law claimed to be standing by with a cheque in hand. Believe it all, until reality hits. Sales dry up. You’re laid off. The major sponsor prospect backs out last minute. Your father-in-law didn’t realize you weren’t able to guarantee his loan. Now you need help. Now you start networking. Now it’s too late.

Why? Well, beyond the obvious of your back being up against the wall, networking is a background activity, not a centre stage one. It’s like consensus building or grassroots politics. It takes time, patience, and persistence. But it doesn’t work when it’s rushed or forced. Because the art of networking is to secure a meeting where it’s clearly declared there is no tolerance for selling, pitching, interviewing. In reality, it’s just that. Both sides know it on some level. But the closer the agenda is to being transactional versus relational, the less likely you are to secure a networking meeting.

So I have some tips. Both as a giver and a taker of networking benefits.

1. Don’t Be a Stranger: Even if I wasn’t making a numbered advice list, this would be my number-one rule of all time. I’m happy to network with people, and, like most, I prioritize the people I know. But you know who I prioritize last? The Stranger! That’s a person who I have known for years, who goes AWOL for a variety of reasons, usually because they deem me to be of no value to them in their current stage. Miraculously they contact me when their circumstances have changed, turned for the worse, and now not only am I their new BFF, but I am somehow supposed to drop everything to meet with them and provide advice/direction/contacts. Rant is over. Don’t be a stranger. Invest a little. It goes a long way.

2. Don’t Be a Whiner: If you read my first tip, you can now call me a massive hypocrite. But let’s face it, how many times have you networked with someone who spent most of the meeting whining about their past business partners, employer, or clients. Nothing is worse. Instantly you have lost all desire to help this person. Frantically you want to escape this chat. That’s why when I predict this is going to happen to me, I use blind date principles in organizing the meet. Bright, open, public space. Coffee, not lunch. Never a drink. Late afternoon where the list of time-related excuses are air-tight and valid. I don’t care about your problems, which usually are more your fault than the accusers you mention anyway. I am providing you my time, so make it enjoyable.

3. Don’t Be a Bragger: Maybe it’s a defence mechanism, but we are meeting because you want something from me. When I’m networking it may be because I want to understand industry trends, or find out about a hot speaker, or learn what agency got hired for what, or keep our relationship warm for the future. Yes, I admit, there is a reason I asked you out for lunch. Is that so bad? It would be if all I did was brag to you about me, my life, my work, and my new car (though it’s pretty awesome!). Network with humility. Find out what’s going on in my life. We will eventually get around to talking about you. And when we do, keep it real. More importantly, when I ask you what you’re great at, or what your company is great at, or what is amazing about this investment, don’t say everything. No one is great at everything. Be honest and candid so we can focus the chat.

4. Don’t Be a Stranger: Had to stick this in again. Besides, I like odd-numbered lists, so I needed a filler.

5. Don’t Forget to Say Thanks: It’s amazing, but true. More than half the times I network with someone, I never hear a word after. No thanks. No update. Not even a note telling me to shut up about my car. Nothing. The best networkers follow up with a thank you, a plan, and an easy request. I gave you my time to help you. I’m willing to give you more. Make me feel good about it and make it easy for me to help, and I am all yours.

Networking helps the world go round. It’s timeless. It’s invaluable. It will never be replaced by social media or augmented reality. Never. Until bots become better at common courtesy than we are.

T1 turns 22 this week.

May 16th to be precise.

That’s years, not months. In case you’re using the toddler time system.

Whew, we made it. Eighty percent of new business lasts less than two years. How lucky are we to tack on another two decades? Guess what, we’re primed for another two or more… decades that is.

What will T1 look like in twenty years, you ask? If you didn’t ask, I don’t care. I am telling you anyway.

Well, for one, I will still be here. In 2038. The good news/bad news for all of you is that retirement isn’t in my spellchecker. So stop asking. Maybe I’m old, feeling slightly insecure, but it’s amazing how many people ask me when am I going to sell. Well never say never, but I have little interest.

In 2038 T1 will still be called T1. It took me twenty-one years to get rid of the condom name. I am not going to mess with this one. It’s too good.

In 2038 the Leafs will win the Stanley Cup. Their front jersey will be adorned by the logo of a local politician, since full-jersey sponsorship was allowed years earlier.

In 2038 T1 won’t have any clients. We will only work for brands that are shareholders or investors in our agency. I think that will be a way of the future. Plus it will allow me to remain steadfast in my independence.

In 2038 T1 will be part of a global network. If not, we will be dead. Again, we will be independent.

In 2038 T1 will have more shareholders than employees. How else will we be able to compete?

In 2038 those who are employees will have two to three places of employment. The careers of the future will look more like an Airbnb than a Howard Johnson.

In 2038 my eldest son, the most admired storyteller in the world, will hire T1 to market his global talking photography exhibit, which features real-time image and message change-outs based on the audience’s immediate emotional reactions, in galleries around the world.

In 2038 T1 will celebrate our 34th Sponsorship Forum aboard Elon Musk’s galactic cruise ship, with 1,500 delegates circling the globe.

In 2038 T1 will operate conferences in seventeen countries around the world.

In 2038 I will realize I have to stop talking about writing my book.

In 2038 Canada will win the Summer Olympics with a record haul of gold medals. Those games will be held in Nunavut.

In 2038 T1 will be celebrating our second Oscar, our third JUNO Award, and will have raised millions for charity.

In 2038 Ella-Grace Margaret Trudeau will be sworn in as Canada’s Prime Minister.

In 2038 T1 will have seven seasonal experiential platforms we own that brands can plug-and-play in at their necessity.

In 2038 Canada will have admitted their seventh U.S. state who started defection proceedings during Trump’s twelve-year presidential reign after he changed term limits to allow himself an extra four years!

In 2038 T1 will lose our patent for DNA-fuelled campaign testing to a challenge by IMI. In related news, Mark & Don were seen at Happy Hour talking about the good old days of 2008!

In 2038 I will own a professional football team. Oh please, oh please.

In 2038 my youngest son will say you’re welcome, when I say thanks for buying me that professional football team.

In 2038 T1 will operate a training program helping elderly people (like me) re-enter the workforce after a decade or more of retirement.

In 2038 T1 will have more Harrisons in it than Sterns. Today there are 3 Sterns and only 2 Harrisons. Prince and I are feeling outnumbered by my wife’s family. Plus she probably would claim Prince. Okay, more isn’t the goal, but at least an even number? (-:

In 2038 T1 will also be employing its first grandchild of a former employee. The betting pool opens soon!

In 2038 the Leafs will raise the banner on their twelfth Stanley Cup in twenty years, while every other team in the NHL complains about their dominance.

What is the Future of Live Events?

That was the question posed to a group of twenty attendees recently at a discreetly curated gathering held by Intellitix and Gilbert’s LLP, at private wine club The Vintage Conservatory.

To stimulate the discussion, four unique speakers were asked to share insights and ideas, while literally being grilled, challenged, endorsed, mocked, cheered, and even heckled by the attendees. The triangulation of twenty Type-H (hyper) guests, the event being held on a Friday evening, and a kept promise of an endless supply of remarkable wines, produced a combustible conversation. The speakers were brave and grateful to be engaged with an audience that included the CEO of one Canada’s most successful homegrown businesses. Senior VPs from pro sports properties, venues, and media. Music festival founders. Brand partnership gurus. Major brand marketers. You get the point.

So what did the speakers have to say, and what is the Future of Live Events?

First, you should meet them. Leading off was Alan Smithson. Beyond his incredible tech background, he is also the CMO of his eleven-year-old daughter’s company Love Sandal. Yes, eleven! Smithson is also known for patenting the Emulator DJ system, and he’s now launching a new VR/AR company called MetaVRse. At the same time he and his wife are creating a legacy project to engage youth through entrepreneurship.

One of those youths could have been speaker number two, Derrick Fung. He’s only twenty-eight, so I hate him already. At twelve he was running the largest online music sheet business in the world. Built another company called Tunezy which he sold to SFX Entertainment. Was named a Top 30 under 30 by Forbes and is now running Drop Loyalty, an experience-based loyalty idea targeting millennials.

Super smart is the only way to describe Rafael Nicolas Fermin Cota. He’s the founder of Left Brain and a professor at Western University. More importantly he’s a mathematical whiz who can take any data dump you can imagine and output a logic path that can drive better decision making.

 

The final speaker was the charismatic Devon Wright who founded Turnstyle Solutions. Wright is the leading proximity marketing innovator in North America and is building a platform that has reached 25,000 stores and wants millions more. But consider this. If you are a sponsor of an event and want to connect with a consumer who attended that event when they walk into your store, Turnstyle can help you do that. Read that sentence over again very very slowly. My customer was at a festival that I sponsored and five days later they walk into my store, and I know immediately? Flip that around. My customer is in my store and I want to tell them about my event in five days? Read that one again as well.

Debate in the workplace is a healthy construct. Too often, however, people take debate personally and can’t separate themselves from the discussion. The beauty of a room full of mostly strangers – everyone seemed to know no more than two other people prior to the evening – and bottles of truth serum, means the mandate to be candid actually happens. There was an abundant supply.

Back and forth the room collegially thrashed.
Would Virtual Reality eventually put an end to live events?
How do you promote a live event, when the in-home experience can be technologically superior?
Is there consumer loyalty in the festival industry?
Is there a different level of loyalty based on event type? Audience type?
Why are consumers?
What data do you need to successfully program and promote a live event?
How do you acquire it?
Who do you have on-board to analyze it?
Do you know who your core influencers are? Your most profitable customers?
Who should you market your event to…the masses or the leaders?
Why will millennials give you data no baby boomer would ever part with?

Maybe it was the laughter or the room energy, but it wasn’t until a day later I realized the answer to the question. The question of The Future of Live Events is not will there be a live event industry or will live events be replaced by virtual or artificial or augmented events. Now the question is what will live events look like and what will differentiate the good from the bad. The answer is painfully obvious. Data.

Data will be the big differentiator. What data can you provide your bosses, your clients, your sponsors, your sponsees? How will you use that data to enhance the consumer experience? How will you use it to refine your value proposition? How will you utilize data to generate higher sponsor ROI?

The tricky part will be blending the art with the science. Balancing the left and the right side of your brain. Your eyes versus your gut.

But without the data – the right data, timely data, clean data – the event industry will languish in the land of the nice to do, feel good, and vanity project. While other forms of marketing and commerce will receive the priority resources in your organization.

Live is a powerful medium, and soon you will have the data to prove it.

Sunday’s Game 7 series-clinching victory by the Raptors should have put a smile on all T.O. sports fans’ faces.

There was an excessive amount of hand wringing and gloom forecasting as to the implications of a loss. Every expert imaginable imagined a Raptors loss resulting in a new coach, a new superstar, and maybe even a new logo. The house wouldn’t just be cleaned. It would be an all around eviction.

You would have thought that the outcome would have ignited the latest Yonge Street parade. Instead I mainly witnessed a flotilla of griping. Apparently the ugly manner in which Toronto won counts for more than the fact that Toronto won. I’m confused!

This was Game 7! We won! It was a franchise-defining victory!

The game began with a strong Raptors O being matched by an equally adept Pacers attack. Then Toronto pushed ahead with a surge in the third quarter, only to serve up a disastrous fourth quarter when they almost handed back the keys to victory.

But in the end, isn’t a win a win? Apparently not.

Is this a Toronto phenomenon? To be an infinitely unhappy sports fan? Is this some special characteristic only those in the 416/647/905/289 possess? Even though we had notched a Grey Cup win just a few seasons ago, the general sentiment is we are over twenty years removed from our last championship. Which is not only patently unfair to the Argonauts and the Toronto Rock for that matter, it’s also an empty lament.

Toronto sports fans aren’t any more deprived than those in Vancouver, Montreal, Buffalo, Cleveland, or Leicester for that matter. We just like to pretend we are. It’s like traffic, road conditions, weather, construction, housing prices, and the economy. It’s trendy to label your hometown as having the worst circumstances of all. Throw in local politicians, decaying schools, garbage pickup, and you have the precise list of every single person’s community gripes.

Now let’s get back to the most common refrain. Our teams stink.

In sports, that is actually true. In every league there is only one champion, only one happy group of fans, only one group of diehards who don’t have to proclaim, “Wait till next year!” I have bad news for you. Next year never comes to most.

Which is sad.

Sports should not be a make-or-break proposition. Why is it fans only come out if the team is winning? Is the quality of play, on the whole, that much worse when your team loses? Does the winning team not possess artistry and mastery of skill? Is everything we learned about enjoying sports as a pastime related to winning?

It appears to be that way.

Winning teams get more fans, get more coverage, get more media, more ratings, more sponsors. The city gets covered on their shirts and hats. Flags adorn their cars. Bars promote their games. But only if you win.

No team, with the exception of the Leafs, seems to draw fervent and consistent passion regardless of their record. Maybe it’s because we have too many choices. I can remember attending and watching many Argos games during their dreary years when they attracted great crowds. The games mattered even if the Boatmen weren’t going to win the Grey Cup.

Perhaps there really are too many choices in this world for just entertainment dollar. But that doesn’t explain why fans only come when the team wins. Better yet, it doesn’t explain why when our teams do succeed, people still find issues and reasons to pout.

So can I ask a favour? Can we please start smiling, T.O. sports fans? Yes the Jays are still finding their groove. Maybe by the time this is published the Raps will be down versus the Heat. TFC has done a pretty good job surviving a brutal season opening road trip. The Argos can’t wait to host you at revamped BMO Field. You seem to have bought into the Leafs brain trust that losing is part of the protest.

Let’s be real sports fans and enjoy the journey. Let’s learn the nuances of our favourite sports and marvel at the skills being showcased. Let’s cheer when we win and cheer louder when we aren’t winning, because it may help turn the tide.

I’m convinced that our pro sports anxiety is showing through loud and clear at our children’s events, and at our community events. It’s clear it’s spilling over at the water cooler.

Seems we are having a hard time remembering, it’s just a game, it’s entertainment, it’s a pastime. Besides, there is always next year!

No, not Elvis. Prince.
No, not my dog Prince. Prince the singer.

(Yes my dog is named Prince. Yes some people at the office, where he is a daily fixture, thought mon chien had passed away when the news of the pop star’s death surfaced.)

I was / am a massive Prince fan. In the summer of 1984 I drove my roommates nuts playing Purple Rain over and over in our tiny cabin astride the old Paignton House golf course at the now defunct Paignton House Resort on Lake Rousseau. Apparently my doves were crying.

This isn’t going to be another coming of age tribute to Prince. I won’t bore you with how he helped me get through my darkest times as a late teenager. Or how he spoke to me and me alone with his music. Or how seeing the movie Purple Rain made me feel like there was hope in this world for a short beige man.

Nor am I going to provide a commentary on his contribution to music as we know it today. How he both adopted others’ styles and also invented new genres. I won’t touch on his most amazing Super Bowl Halftime show or the criticism his selection originally faced. I won’t give you a history lesson on his weirdness, his namelessness, nor his Torontoness.

 

 

I also won’t lament on what a crummy year it has been losing both Prince and Bowie in the span of a few months. That goes without saying. I also won’t mention these things come in threes, thereby now hexing every iconic living musical artist to their potential demise.

Others have done all that in Spades.

Instead I am going to tell you a simple story.

I never got to see Prince live. Years ago I was invited and didn’t go. I can’t remember why. I think it was because I was busy watching a football game. My spouse went and she said he was amazing. She wasn’t really an appreciator of his artistry until that event.

Me? I expected I would see him someday. There was something about Prince that seemed invincible. He lived, or so I thought, so cleanly. He was so devout. He seemed to be normal, despite his weirdness. I always thought there would be a tomorrow, a next year, a next time. Then I could see him.

Prince’s death came out of the blue. You couldn’t say that about Michael Jackson. Or Elvis. Some people were shocked by Bowie’s demise, others had been hearing rumors or listening to internet suspicion. But Prince went out of the blue.

Now I have a regret. A regret that is stained by my procrastination. I wish I had seen him live. I wish I had seen him more than once. In death his lesson to me is simple. Don’t put things off that matter to you. Go hike that mountain. See that monument. Visit that distant relative. Check in on that old friend. Run that first marathon.

Even in death Prince is still sending me life lessons.

Business conferences are like chess games.

You never know how your attendance is going to play out. What sessions will be great. What will stink. Where the best networking is.

Despite having attended multiple versions of the IEG Sponsorship Conference in the past, I decided this was the year to change up my regular modus operandi. I resolved to understand from as many sources as I could, what’s actually happening in the global sponsorship industry in 2016. My not so hidden agenda was to come out with an insight, or three, that could be utilized for a future marketing opportunity.

I think the question could be best positioned as What’s Changed in Sponsorship? The answer isn’t simple but can fill three buckets:  (1) Nothing; (2) Everything; (3) Anything.

1. Nothing. 

   Yes nothing. Shockingly brands are still sponsoring what the C-Suite wants. Shockingly brands are still utilizing gut instinct. Shockingly awareness is still being referenced as a key benefit of sponsorship. 

   Equally as surprising is the fact that many speakers and delegates still think that suggesting themes as “start with your objectives,” “know your audience,” and “we only do custom proposals,” is somehow innovative or unique. 

   Despite these relics from the past, there is one significant theme that thankfully hasn’t disappeared and is critical to the existence of the industry. That is the simple reality that nothing ties into passions of a consumer more powerfully than sponsorship. It might come in a different package today, think YouTube influencer, but the core remains the same.

2. Everything. 

   Even IEG is being repositioned as a newsletter and conference company, as they are part of a WPP consolidation that has created a new company called ESP properties. Legendary founder Lesa Ukman declared this was her last year hosting her venerable conference. In 2017 Ukman will be a delegate. 

   B2B is converging with B2C as brand marketers realize they aren’t selling business to business, they are selling human to human. As the role of small and innovative business increasingly becomes more important in global economies, the need for corporate marketers to achieve scale is also driving this. 

   The NBA is allowing jersey sponsorship. It’s a three-year test with a plethora of rules and regulations. The first major league to do so. The Cleveland Cavaliers, for example, have an interesting question to be answered. How much will a company pay to have their logo on LeBron James.

3. Anything. 

   What continues to amaze me about the business we are in, is that you can create, invent, or design anything you can dream. No single speaker epitomized this more than superstar keynote Dean Kamen. The holder of four hundred patents, he has invented devices that help people with diabetes, cancer, limb loss, mobility issues and more. His creations range from the Segway to the Coca-Cola Freestyle machine to a machine that can generate power from cow dung.  

   Kamen created FIRST in 1989 to encourage and inspire kids to participate in science. His mission was to create a science competition that resembled a youth sports league. Today the property has over one million participants from eighty plus countries, and over sixty thousand people at a massive world championship. Kamen is a genius. His prosthetic arm for ARPA is allowing wounded soldiers to regain their independence. He didn’t create his property to gain fame or wealth. He has that. He created his property to help build the youth of today into the leaders of tomorrow. His IEG pitch was to find partners who could help him build FIRST to a place of ubiquity. So that every child in America, and perhaps the world, can be exposed to science. His model is an amazing one that could be patterned for any program.

   Too many people still seemed to confuse the changes in technology with changes in marketing. I’m not the first to suggest this. However, just because anyone with an iPhone can produce a video or a banner, doesn’t mean that’s where the opportunity lies. The opportunity lies in the reality that sponsorship is an industry where you can create anything. It’s the most flexible and adaptable marketing form and continues to be so.

Whoever coined the phrase The more things change, the more they stay the same, best summarized this year’s IEG Sponsorship Conference. 

As a company IEG was a global thought leader in sponsorship-building approaches and protocols that have become ubiquitous throughout the industry. It will be interesting  to see how its conference and newsletter fare when they are disconnected from the actual business. In some respects I’m sad to see the end of Lesa Ukman’s tenure. 

Perhaps the change makes me feel old.